As I browsed through the list posted today on TPM about staffing additions to team Obama, I grew curious about the last name listed; African American Vote Director: Rick Wade
While other Kossaks are pondering the deep inner meaning of the Solis-Doyle hire, I wanted to take a good look at the person who will more than likely be coordinating GOTV efforts in African-American communities.
Why is this important? Contrary to the assumption that all black folks will rush to the polls to vote Barack automatically, it wasn't long ago that a large piece of the African American sweet potato pie was in the Clinton corner. There are also large numbers of black folks who don't vote or haven't registered to vote in many parts of the country, and that voting population in the Deep South is going to be crucial this year; as well as those in inner city urban areas of the Northeast and Midwest.
Senator Obama has learned he cannot take them for granted nor will he. A large majority of the AA population in this country are also church goers - particularly older ones. The same smears directed at the white population go to blacks on email lists as well. Black voter "confusion" efforts targeted at black folks were well documented here.
So who is Rick C Wade?
South Carolina Black News provides some answers:
Rick Wade joins forces with Barack Obama
A native of Lancaster, South Carolina, he grew up in a family with five other siblings. His father suffered from alcoholism and his mother had to work two jobs to provide for he and his brothers and sisters.
"She taught us some very important values just by watching her in challenging situations. She’s the one that gave me so much determination, drive and hope," said Wade.
No stranger to struggle as a child, Wade grew up in a Jim Crow system.
He attended the Lancaster public school system, where he first encountered electoral politics. Schools in Lancaster were still very much segregated, but once in high school, the landscape began to change. As a junior, Wade was elected to serve the student body as Co-Vice President "Black" to serve with his counterpart Co-Vice President "White," who incidentally was also named Wade. In his senior year, Wade was elected to serve as his student body president at Lancaster High School, with no color delineation attached.
He reflects, "It wasn’t so much about race, but it was about me representing issues that the students wanted to address." After that taste of what it was to be a true representative, he said, "It became contagious.
Some people are called to public service."
After graduating from High School he stayed in South Carolina to attend college, but moved on to Harvard.
He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of South Carolina and Master of Public Administration from Harvard University, where he was also a Kennedy Fellow.
He also has additional training which will aid his connection to AA communities of faith:
He has studied at both the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia and Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC.
Wade has worked in both the private sector and in government for a number of years
He is a former executive at Palmetto GBA, a subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina,
and is a former member of the Cabinet of Governor Jim Hodges, serving as state director of the SC Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services.
While working for Palmetto he coordinated their Katrina outreach efforts in SC:
Hurricane Katrina: Helping Victims Become Survivors Rick C. Wade Coordinator of Katrina Relief Project For BlueCross Blue Shield of South Carolina and Palmetto GBA
We all watched the horrific television images of devastation, destruction and death resulting from Hurricane Katrina. Many people wanted to help those impacted by the storm, but most didn’t know how. BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina (BCBSSC), Palmetto GBA and their employees accepted the challenge and came to the rescue. Over two hundred BCBSSC and Palmetto GBA staff traveled to the Gulf Coast to deliver direct services to victims. Employees contributed over $1 million to the American Red Cross for relief efforts. The Midlands Chapter of the American Red Cross even used the BCBSSC auditorium as an emergency phone bank. Recognizing the traditional hospitality and generosity of South Carolinians, Congressman Jim Clyburn, Mayor Bob Coble, Samuel Tenenbaum and others convened a meeting to establish South Carolina Cares, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping Hurricane evacuees.
http://209.85.215.104/...
He has also ran for office, though unsuccessfully:
In 2002, Wade ran for the statewide office of Secretary of State of South Carolina and won nearly 44% of the vote in his first bid for elected office.
http://www.scsu.edu/...
But the most interesting thing I ran across was a blog post authored by Wade, but posted by a volunteer on the Obama website. Posted in February, I'm not sure when it was written, but around that same time that you saw headlines like these in papers like the Washington Post:
Blacks Shift To Obama, Poll Finds
By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 28, 2007; Page A01
The opening stages of the campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination have produced a noticeable shift in sentiment among African American voters, who little more than a month ago heavily supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton but now favor the candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama.
Clinton, of New York, continues to lead Obama and other rivals in the Democratic contest, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll. But her once-sizable margin over the freshman senator from Illinois was sliced in half during the past month largely because of Obama's growing support among black voters.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Wade's column addressed the concerns of black voters. How soon many of us forget that African-Americans were not on his bandwagon from the beginning, and there were many who weren't sure he was "black" at all. Or at least not African-American in the way we are described as an ethnic group.
A different standard for Obama
By RICK C. WADE
Guest columnist
Amid all the distracting chatter about race surrounding Sen. Barack Obama’s candidacy for president, the comments that have been most disturbing to me are the ones questioning the senator’s fitness to represent the interests of black Americans. Even more troubling is that these questions are being posed by black political leaders and social critics who are not raising the same concerns about the other presidential candidates.
What a sad commentary that African-Americans are fanning the race flames rather than helping to keep the focus on the more significant issues of the day. Some of these very leaders and opinion-makers have spent more time and energy debating whether Sen. Obama is "black enough" than on whether he can help bring better jobs, quality education and affordable health care to more black Americans.
Some black leaders have even taken critical note of Sen. Obama’s biracial parentage. They’re bothered that his was not a black-centered upbringing, but one that encompassed many aspects of his background as the son of a black African immigrant and a white American. They worry that because his ancestors weren’t American slaves he won’t relate to blacks whose ancestors were. They wonder if all these issues disqualify him as the best "black candidate," when they should really be judging him as simply a candidate.
Wade raises an interesting point about the standards applied to white candidates as opposed to Obama:
White candidates are being held to the issues test, while Barack Obama must pass the race test. That is just unfair. Women are not challenging whether Sen. Hillary Clinton is woman enough. White men are not assessing whether John Edwards is white enough. Nor has anyone questioned whether Gov. Bill Richardson is Hispanic enough. All the candidates should be required to pass the same test — and that is to prove they have the ideals, vision and agenda to make America better.
I was most disappointed that a state senator from South Carolina recently suggested that because Sen. Obama is black, he would "drag down the rest of the Democratic party and everybody would be doomed" if he received the nomination. What an embarrassing and absurd sentiment. If this were true, then the candidacies of former presidential candidates Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Carol Mosely Braun were all in vain.
He addresses one of the major contradictions Obama continues to face:
Young, emergent African-American leaders such as Mr. Obama are in a Catch-22 and must perform a great balancing act in order to succeed politically. If they seem too mainstream or corporate, they risk being seen as "too white" by black voters. If they are too grassroots or activist-minded, they may scare off white voters who find them "too black."
He then stresses Obama's community activism:
Sen. Obama’s entire political career has been rooted in the black community. He walked the streets as an organizer in Chicago’s South Side. After Harvard Law School, he could have gone to work anywhere, but he returned home to lead a statewide voter registration initiative. He later joined a small civil rights law firm and was elected to the Illinois Senate from a mostly black district. He has walked the walk, while most of his critics have just talked.
He also relates this to his own experence:
As a Harvard graduate myself, former candidate for statewide office in South Carolina, and one who has been involved in every level of community service, I know what it feels like to be labeled "too white" or not "black enough" by people of my own race. Frankly, it’s more painful than being called the "N" word.
He concludes by addressing Obama's lack of ties to slavery, which was a concern raised in many community discussions, and ties Obama to Dr. M.L. King's legacy.
Sen. Obama may not have slave ancestors, but he is the fruit of the labor of our ancestors. He is an extension of the civil rights movement, not the antithesis of the civil rights movement. All of us need to recognize this and celebrate it, not feel threatened by it.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of an America where a person would "not be judged by the color of his skin, but the content of his character." Sen. Obama just might be the man to help Americans finally put character over race — that is, if his critics don’t keep putting his race ahead of his character.
Dr. King and Sen. Obama are clearly two different men from very different times. Dr. King died for the Dream. Sen. Obama is living the Dream. Isn’t that what progress is all about?
http://my.barackobama.com/...
Looks to me like team Obama has picked a solid staffer to move the campaign forward.